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  Storage systemUSPTO Application #: 20080046671Title: Storage system Abstract: A technique that can efficiently achieve migration of a configuration and data between storage units with varying constructions of configuration information and that can alleviate burdens of personal operation by an administrator, etc. With the configuration information of each storage unit controlled by the storage control server, based on each piece of configuration information, the transfer-source configu-ration information is converted into information necessary for establishing the logical partition configuration of a storage unit which has the transfer-destination logical partition function. The information prepared by the conversion is transmitted to the transfer-destination storage unit and the configuration with the transfer-source logical configuration set as the transfer-destination logical partition is updated in the transfer-destination storage unit. After the migration of the configuration, the data is migrated using a remote copy function of carrying out data copy between the transfer-source and transfer-destination logical devices. (end of abstract) Agent: Stanley P. Fisher Reed Smith LLP - Falls Church, VA, US Inventors: Eiichi Sato, Masafumi Nozawa, Kyosuke Achiwa USPTO Applicaton #: 20080046671 - Class: 711162000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Electrical Computers And Digital Processing Systems: Memory, Storage Accessing And Control, Control Technique, Archiving, Backup The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080046671. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/694,095 filed on Mar. 30, 2007, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/017,967 filed on Dec. 22, 2004, and claims priority from U.S. application Ser. No. 11/694,095 filed on Mar. 30, 2007, which claims priority from U.S. application Ser. No. 11/017,967 filed on Dec. 22, 2004, which claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-318082 filed on Nov. 1, 2004, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a storage system configuring a storage unit that carries out control to store data in a storage area and more particularly to a technique for migrating configuration and data of the storage unit. [0003] Hitherto, in a storage system that communicably connects a host unit such as task server which the user uses and a storage unit, the storage unit carries out control to store the data from a host unit in a storage area which the storage unit such as hard disk drive provides. To use the storage system, it is necessary to set and hold configuration information in the storage unit. [0004] The configuration information is various pieces of setting information on physical and logical configurations such as a configuration of connection paths (also called logical paths) recognized by the host unit and a configuration of a storage volume of a logical device etc. ensured on a storage device between the host unit and the storage unit. The physical configuration information is information on, for example, a physical port and a physical disk. The logical configuration information is information on, for example, a logical port and a logical device logically configured and set on the physical configuration. [0005] Conventionally, when a configuration of a storage unit or data stored in a storage volume is transferred to other storage unit, for example, in the case of replacing the old storage unit with a new storage unit, the following procedure involving a personal operation and a computer processing has been necessary. For example, in replacing the old storage unit with the new storage unit, firstly, a person in charge thereof understands the content of configuration information held on memory in the old storage unit, and carries out the environment setting work so that the same configuration as that of the old storage unit can be achieved in the new storage unit. The person in charge thereof is a person who utilizes and administers a storage unit and a storage system including the storage unit, such as a system administrator. Migration of the configuration corresponds to the migration of the configuration information. Then, after setting the new storage unit, the stored data in the old storage unit is copied to the new storage unit. That is, the old storage unit and the new storage unit are connected to the host unit or control device, etc. that can implement data copy therebetween, and the data copy from the old storage unit to the new storage unit is carried out. Or, the stored data in the old storage unit is temporarily backed up into a backup medium such as a magnetic tape, and the backup data is restored to the new storage unit. Or, if the new and old storage units have a remote copy function of directly copy-processing the data of the storage volume such as a logical device, it is possible to migrate the data by the use of this remote function. [0006] In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-102374, a technique that carries out changes in access paths associated with data migration between storage units is described. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] In recent years, a storage unit which has a logical partition function has begun to be utilized. If the old storage unit does not have a logical partition function and the new storage unit has a logical partition function and the configuration and data of the old storage unit serving as a transfer source are migrated to a logical partition configuration and data of the new storage unit serving as a transfer destination, the person in charge thereof must convert the configuration information of the old storage unit to the setting items of the logical partition configuration of the new storage unit and carry out the setting operation. [0008] Almost all the migration concerning the configuration and data of the storage unit involves comparatively complicated personal work including understanding and converting of the configuration information, thereby resulting in a large burden. [0009] In addition, when the logical partition function of the transfer-destination storage unit is used and the setting of the configuration including the logical partition configuration of the transfer-destination storage unit is implemented, because the construction of the configuration information differs between the transfer-source storage unit with no logical partition function and the transfer-destination storage unit with the logical partition function, the migration as it is, that is, the migration by simply moving the configuration information and the copy from a transfer source to a transfer destination cannot be carried out. [0010] In the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-102374, in the case of the migration from the transfer-source configuration with no logical partition to the transfer-destination configuration with logical partition configuration, the migration is impossible similarly. [0011] The present invention is made in view of the foregoing problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique, which can efficiently carry out the migration between the storage units having different constructions in the configuration information due to presence or absence of the logical partition function and can alleviate burdens of personal operations by the administrator in migrating configuration and data from one storage unit to the other storage unit. [0012] Outlines of representative ones of inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows. [0013] In order to achieve the above object, a storage system according to the present invention comprises one or more storage units each having a storage device and a controller to control storage of data in the storage device, wherein the storage unit is configured to have configuration information that includes logical configuration information held on a memory, and the storage system has the features of provided the following technical means: [0014] First of all, there is considered the case in which configuration of one or more storage units is introduced into a configuration control means of a batch controllable storage control server and others via a network and others and operated in an existing storage system. In such event, an attention is placed on the fact that configuration information of the transfer-source storage unit which is in operation and serves as a target to have a configuration and data migrated is held and controlled by the configuration control means. As described above, when the construction of the configuration information differs between the transfer-source and the transfer-destination configuration and the data cannot be migrated as it is. Therefore, in the storage system according to the present invention, by the configuration of having a server unit communicably connected to the above-mentioned one or more storage units equipped as a configuration control means to carry out migration control of the configuration and data, and in the server unit, the configuration information of each storage unit is collection-processed and held and controlled in a batch in the table inside the server unit and, at the same time, using the configuration information to be held, the configuration information is conversion-processed for migrating the configuration. That is, in the server unit, a process is carried out to convert configuration information of the transfer-source storage unit to information necessary to set the logical partition configuration in the transfer-destination storage unit having a logical partition function. The server unit transmits the information prepared by the conversion to the transfer-destination storage unit, and by the transmitted information, establishment or updating of the configuration of the transfer-destination storage unit is carried out. In addition, because in the present storage system, by the migration of configuration, the setting relation of storage volume of logical device and others is understood between the transfer-source and the transfer-destination storage units, after the configuration is migrated, under the control of the server unit, processing to migrate the stored data of the storage volume is performed between the transfer-source and the transfer-destination storage units. [0015] The storage system according to the present invention comprises, in particular, a migration control means that controls migration concerning configuration and data between the first storage unit with no logical partition function that enables logical partition configuration to restrict access to resources of usable logical configuration to specific users and the second storage unit with a logical partition function. [0016] The migration control means migrates configuration by converting the configuration of the transfer-source first storage unit to the logical partition configuration of the transfer-destination second storage unit based on the configuration information and by updating configuration of the second storage unit, and after migration of the configuration, successively migrates the stored data from the first storage unit to the second storage unit by the use of a data copy means to copy the data between the first storage unit and the second storage unit. When the data is left in the transfer-source data copying is carried out. When the data is not left in the transfer-source the data is migrated. [0017] In addition, a storage system according to the present invention comprise a server unit (storage control server) to which each storage unit including the transfer-source first storage unit and the transfer-destination second storage unit are communicably connected as a migration control means that controls the migration about the configuration and data between the first storage unit having no logical partition function and the second storage unit having a logical partition function. [0018] The server collects the configuration information of each storage unit and holds and controls it in a table, converts the configuration of the first storage unit to the logical partition configuration of the second storage unit in accordance with the configuration information in the table in response to the direction of migration, transmits the information prepared by the conversion to the second storage unit and updates the configuration of the second storage unit, and, after migration of the configuration, successively migrates the stored data of the storage volume from the first storage unit to the second storage unit by using a data copy means to copy the data between the first storage unit and the second storage unit. [0019] In addition, the storage unit carries out a process for referring/updating configuration information held on the memory as required by a processor unit (SVP) for maintenance and control of, for example, its own storage unit, reads and transmits the configuration information on the memory in accordance with the request from the unit such as the external server unit and others, and receives information from the external unit in accordance with the request from the external unit and reflects it to the configuration information on the memory. [0020] Furthermore, the storage unit is configured to hold configuration information including logical configuration information on a path configuration for access between the host unit and the storage volume of the storage unit, a storage volume configuration such as a logical device assignment configuration and others, and a logical configuration including a cache configuration such as cash capacity and others on the memory. [0021] The second storage unit can configure the first logical partition concerning the cache configuration (cache logical partition) and the second logical partition concerning other configurations including the path configuration and the storage volume configuration (storage logical partition). Continue reading... Full patent description for Storage system Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Storage system patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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